Her New Nature
by JenGambale
Summary: Charlie realizes the full extent of Bella's change when he has a run-in with a vampire. ONE-SHOT


**A/N: **I had this idea a few hours ago and immediately had to write it down. First time I've written an entire one-shot in just one session. I hope you like it. Happy Reading!

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**HER NEW NATURE**

Charlie Swan sighed and then stepped back out into the rain, letting the front door to the bakery fall shut behind him. He had to tuck the large bag of pastries under his arm and struggle with the handle of his umbrella until he was finally able to open it and make his long way back to his car. The sun was already setting.

_Women_, he thought when he let his mind wander back to several hours before.

Sue loved the croissants that were made in the little bakery on the outskirts of Seattle and today, she had felt like she desperately needed some. So, being the good boyfriend (Charlie preferred using the word partner; he wasn't a boy anymore but who was listening to him?) he was, he had offered to drive the three-and-a-half hour ride from his own house in Forks to Seattle to get her beloved pastries, on a day that held even more rain for the habitants of the Olympic Peninsula than usual.

A quick look at his wristwatch told him that it was half past seven in the evening. Great. He wouldn't be back before 11pm if he drove with the speed limit. Good thing he had taken the police cruiser. On the way back he would be able to turn on the siren and drive back in half the time it had taken him to get here, if he was lucky and there was no traffic.

He sighed again and kept his eyes on the sidewalk. There were a few pedestrians passing him from the opposite direction and one or two passing him from behind.

Suddenly, someone bumped into his shoulder which led to the pastry bag flying to the ground. Charlie made a startled movement to catch it but before his fingers came even close to the paper bag, the hand of the person who had run into him shot forward at an incredible speed, caught the bag and then the guy was running.

"Aw, come on," Charlie moaned and waved his hand after the guy. "Sue's gonna kill me. Hey, get back here!"

The man didn't give any indication that he had heard him and kept running. About thirty yards ahead, he turned left into one of the side streets and vanished from view.

"Oh, for –," Charlie groaned, abandoned his umbrella and started running, reaching the side street a short moment later only to stop in his tracks. The side street was actually a dead end, maybe fifty yards deep.

And there was no sign of the thief.

After a few minutes of hesitation, battling with the sinking feeling in his gut whether or not to keep pursuing the guy instead of just going back to the bakery and buying the pastries again, he finally decided to take a shot at talking the thief into returning the item of his theft.

He slowly walked forward, getting more and more soaked by second. Apart from the sound of the rain, Charlie's own footsteps and the cars on the main street passing by, it was silent.

"C'mon, dude!" he called into the shadows. "I know you're here! Just give me back my bag, _with_ the pastries in it, and I'll forget this whole story, okay? Hey, if you're hungry, I could buy you a burger at the fast-food place down the street. Just give me back my stuff."

"Oh, I'm hungry," a voice that tingled a certain familiarity in his mind spoke up behind him. "Just not for pastries."

An ice-cold hand snapped around Charlie's throat, whose immediate reaction was to try to suck in some oxygen. His eyes widened when he realized what was so familiar about the man's voice. It had the same harmonic quality of wind chimes to it as the C–.

The sudden loud screech of rubber on wet asphalt made his attacker turn his head and from one second to the other, he was gone and Charlie was collapsing. A pair of arms as hard as stone caught him before he hit the ground and put him back on his feet.

He coughed, grasping his knees and gasping for air, and then looked up to his savior, only to be surprised once more. "Edward?" he panted.

"Stay back, Chief Swan," his son-in-law warned him and held one arm outstretched in front of Charlie.

Charlie Swan followed his gaze and saw that his attacker was backed up against the dead-end wall in a defensive stance.

"Shouldn't we run?" he asked his junior (at least that was what he thought).

"No," Edward answered, a crooked smile appearing on his lips that glowed with ... what exactly? Humor? Close, but not exactly. Pride. Yes, it was pride. "Don't worry, Chief Swan, she got this."

Charlie frowned and turned his eyes back to the far end of the dead-end street. Only then did he notice another shape a few feet away from his attacker, a small feminine silhouette, crouched down into an animal-like posture. Her long dark hair was damply spread across her back which distorted her outlines a little, yet Charlie immediately recognized her.

"Bella!" he gasped and wanted to stumble forward but Edward held him back.

"Why are you denying me my prey?" his attacker demanded to know. "What is a small human to you?"

A inhuman sound erupted from the throat of Charlie's daughter, a sound so fierce, it made the chief of police jump in shock. Almost half a minute passed until he realized that his daughter was _growling_. Growling like a feline predator protecting her young.

When Bella finally spoke, her voice had nothing of the shy, quiet character it used to have until six months ago.

"If you ever ... _ever_ try to touch my father again, I will rip your throat out," she snarled.

Charlie Swan started to shiver.

The attacker flashed forward with a mocking laugh but Bella caught him mid-air. At once, the man started to growl and snarl on his own and made a leap to the young woman's neck with his teeth. What followed happened so fast that Charlie saw nothing more than blur. Bella and the man went at each other, it seemed, with a sound concert that reminded him of a documentary about animals in Africa, where they had shown a rivaling fight between two lions.

It was too much. He knew that his daughter was different now, different in more ways than just her physical appearance but _this_ – this was just too much for his ordinary human mind.

He stumbled backwards toward the main street and didn't care to check if Edward would stop him. His car was parked on the next street corner. When he reached it, he fumbled the keys out of his jacket pocket and, after several attempts, managed to get it into the keyhole to unlock the driver door. While he revved the engine and sped down the street in the opposite direction of the fight, cutting off a grey Honda in the process, he desperately tried to clear his mind. It didn't work.

After twenty minutes of slow-packed traffic, he turned on the siren and raced the rest of the way to Forks like the Angel of Death itself was after him. Just before he would have taken the right at the road fork with the sign that directed right to Forks and left to La Push, he changed his mind and turned left instead.

Sue's house was brightly lit, so she was up and waiting for him. He only checked the time when he parked in the driveway and turned the engine off. It was just past 11.

"Finally, I've been waiting forev–," Sue started as he walked into her kitchen a few minutes later, but stopped at once when she saw his face. "Charlie, are you okay?" she immediately asked with deep concern in her voice. "Did something happen?"

"I don't wanna talk about it," he said after a moment, his eyes apologetic.

Sue slowly got up from her chair and stepped in front of him. "Can I help you in any way?"

"Um," he began, "yeah, actually. Can I sleep on your couch? I just don't feel comfortable with being on my own right now."

"Of course," she assured him and went into her bedroom to get two pillows and a blanket.

Charlie followed her into the living room and watched her while she turned the couch into a half-proper bed. "Seth and Leah?"

"They're both on patrol. Sam and Jacob don't like the idea of having the boundary lines unprotected," she answered while she fluffed up the pillows for him.

He just nodded. The dynamics of the wolves were something he didn't really understand and he also didn't want to. He knew they existed and that was enough for him, details weren't necessary.

"Well, there you go." His place of rest was finished.

He forced a smile and gently touched Sue's shoulder for a moment. "Thank you."

"Good night." Once he was settled in a comfortable position, she switched off the lights and went to her own bedroom. He knew she would have offered him to join her in her bed but he thought it too early. They'd only been dating for a couple of months and he wanted to do it right.

A dreamless sleep claimed him soon, out of which he was woken way too early.

"Charlie?" a husky voice whispered in the darkness.

His eyelids were heavy, so it took him a while to fully get them open. One of the small table lamps was lit and Seth was crouched beside the couch on the floor.

"What is it?" Charlie grunted lowly.

The boy hesitated. "She's outside. She wants to talk to you."

His heart stopped for the fracture of a second. Then he sighed, sat up and rubbed his eyes which then wandered the room in search for a clock. When they didn't find one he asked Seth as he got up and stretched.

"It's half past three," Seth answered and added, "Did something happen? She seems upset."

"I'll tell you later." Charlie put on his shoes. "Maybe."

Seth went into the kitchen while Charlie himself hesitantly stepped out onto the front porch, his eyes fixing on Bella, who was standing in front of his car, unmoving.

Both of them didn't say a word for what felt like an eternity.

Then Bella spoke up. "I'm so sorry." She sounded remorseful.

He didn't speak.

"I should not have let you see that. Edward should have gotten you out of that street immediately. He's sorry, too."

She waited for him to say something. He didn't.

"Please, dad–"

"Answer me this," he interrupted her.

Bella looked up in surprise.

"How did you know I was–?" He arched an eyebrow.

His daughter sighed and only said one word. "Alice."

He cleared his throat. "And you still think it better if I don't–?"

She nodded.

"Then I suppose there's nothing more we should talk about," Charlie Swan concluded.

"Are you afraid?" she asked after a moment's hesitation.

He looked her in the eyes and, after steadying his heartbeat, said, "Of course not."

There and then he knew that she knew that her father was not telling the entire truth but she let it go. "I'm tired," he said and then slowly opened his arms. "Good night hug, so I can go back to sleep?"

She smiled and joined him on the front porch. Her arms slowly and carefully wrapped around his waist. He closed his arms and squeezed her tightly.

"I love you, Dad," she whispered.

"I love you, too, Bells," he whispered back.

And he meant it. He would always love her. But after what he had seen tonight, a small part of him, from now on, would always fear her embrace.


End file.
